London - U.S. consumer electronics and media retail chain Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) announced on Thursday that it paid $2.1 billion to acquire 50% of the Carphone Warehouse, a mobile phone retailer that counts over 2,400 stores in nine European countries.

Washington - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has levied a total of $6 million in fines against many of the top electronics retailers in the U.S., for violating rules on labeling analog televisions they sell to inform consumers the devices will not be able to receive digital signals after the switch to digital broadcasting next February. The FCC levied fines against retailers including Sears ($1.1 million), Wal-Mart ($992,000), Circuit City ($712,000), Target ($296,000) and Best Buy ($280,000).

Minneapolis - In light of the format's impending demise at the hands of Sony's (NYSE: SNE) Blu-ray, electronics and media retail chain Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) announced on Wednesday that it will provide $50 gift cards to customers who purchased an HD DVD player or HD DVD attachment from its U.S. stores before Feb. 23 -- and expects to shell out more than $10 million during the program.

Cupertino, Calif. - Apple (NASD: AAPL) announced on Tuesday that its iTunes Store is now the second-largest music retailer in the U.S. behind Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), having leapfrogged retail chain Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) in the latest figures from market research firm NPD Group. The company pulled ahead of then third-place U.S. music retailer Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN) last June, according to NPD's rankings.

Minneapolis - Electronics and media retail chain Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) announced on Wednesday that it has taken a minority equity stake in Mydeo, and launched a subscription-based video hosting service for its customers using the company's services.

Los Angeles - Electronics and media retailer Best Buy has partnered with RealNetworks to create a branded version of its Rhapsody digital music service, to replace a similar co-branded service created with Napster, Variety reported.

Los Angeles - Electronics retailer Best Buy and video rental firm Blockbuster are signing deals with movie studios in preparation to launch some form of video download stores, Variety reported. The news was leaked by Canadian film studio Lionsgate's CEO Jon Feltheimer on Thursday, during a conference call with analysts in which the companies were listed alongside Apple and Amazon.com as having signed digital distribution deals with the studio. Neither Best Buy nor Blockbuster have so far announced plans to launch movie download stores.

Minneapolis - Consumer electronics and media retailer Best Buy announced that it has added video game ratings created by the non-profit group Common Sense Media to those from the industry-created Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) on its website. Best Buy is the first retailer to partner with the group, which says its ratings are "based on childhood development criteria for age-appropriateness," and provide detailed accounts of "violence, sexual content and profanity." Best Buy said it plans to add Common Sense's movie reviews as well at a later date.

Minneapolis, Minn. - Electronics and media retailer Best Buy announced on Monday that it has added HD Radio receivers to all of its 832 U.S. stores. Developed by iBiquity Digital, HD Radio allows terrestrial radio stations to offer digital signals alongside their traditional analog broadcasts. The HD Digital Radio Alliance said that more than 1,200 stations are now broadcasting in HD.